Reflection 02/17/2019

The first reading from the prophet Jeremiah tells us something interesting regarding the spiritual life. In a nutshell he is telling to us not trust any person, even ourselves. Who we should trust is God alone.
There is a temptation to put our trust in other people, especially those who are very influential, particularly politicians and political parties. We all recognize things in the world that need to change, or injustices that should never happen. In order to improve the state of things we tend to look to the political world to enact these necessary changes. To be sure, this is a good to do. The Church asks us to be informed and active citizens in the countries that we live in, participating in the political life. However, the warning from Jeremiah is that we should never put our entire stock in others. We should never rise and fall with a political party or politician. To be Catholic is not to belong to particular political party. The party that we belong to as Catholics is the Mystical Body of Christ, the Church. What saves us is not those whom we vote for, but Him who died for us on a Cross.
That was an example of the dangers of putting our trust in others. But we should also not trust ourselves. In my opinion, this is a more difficult lesson to learn and to put into practice. Due to the Fall we are all born into sin. We are all weak from the consequences of original sin and concupiscence. We have weakened wills and darkened intellects, meaning that we don’t always know the truth or choose the good. We become encountered with this when we make a committed effort in bettering ourselves, in trying to overcome our habitual sins. St. Paul says, “For I do not do the good I want, but I do the evil I do not want.” (Rom. 7:19) Because of this battle within ourselves we have to rely on someone more powerful than we are to overcome these temptations, to turn habitual vice into habitual virtue. That person is Jesus Christ. We need His grace and mercy. We need to have humility and the proper distrust in ourselves, relying solely on Christ first. The more we rely on Christ rather than ourselves, the quicker we grow in virtue and holiness.
St. Paul says, “For when I am weak, it then that I am strong.” (2 Cor. 12:10) Let us trust less in others, even ourselves, and more on Jesus Christ. There are plenty of things that need to change in our world. The first thing that should change is ourselves, being made new in Jesus Christ.